Russia prepared for equal work with US when it gets ready

UNITED NATIONS, September 26. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia is prepared to work with the United States on equal terms when Washington is ready, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.

“As for a new cold war, I have met with many colleagues and regional groups, and they told me that the Cold War had never ended and its winners had never given up attempts to use the situation in their own geopolitical interests,” the minister said.

“What can be done in order to improve relations with the United States? We did not aggravate them either during the Magnitsky situation or when Snowden came out of the blue. The Americans got very much offended and decided to postpone Barack Obama’s visit. So we did not aggravate relations and are doing everything we can to preserve channels of communication,” Lavrov said.

“It was not us who abolished the presidential commission co-coordinated by the heads of the Russian and American foreign ministries. And the U.S. froze the work of the commission’s working groups,” he added.

“These are practical things the U.S. rejected to punish us. We are prepared for fair and equal work. They sent us signals: we will work out the criteria which you will meet [for the sanctions to be lifted],” Lavrov said.

But this is not serious, he said. “As soon as our partner get ready [for the dialogue], they will be most welcome,” he added.